Mum Jenny Roberts can look back to a day in June 2009 as the moment she decided: 'I have got to take control.'

Having battled with her weight since childhood she had almost reached 16 stones and was ashamed to go shopping for size 22.

She recalled: 'I hardly did any exercise, my knees ached constantly and I got out of breath just walking upstairs. I realised at that point that if I did not do anything, I was going to kill myself.'

The turning point came when she joined her local Slimming World Class in Hickling and watched the weight disappear.

Having lost 6st 4lb to reach a super trim 9st 6lb, Jenny, 39, of Church Road, Potter Heigham, declared: 'To be able to go into clothes shops and buy anything I see is an unbelievable feeling I can't explain.'

At the very time people are thinking about their New Year's resolutions, she has now announced her decision to help other struggling slimmers - by starting her own Slimming World group at Broadland High School in Hoveton from January 9.

'The reason I want to help others is that I know what a lonely place it is when you are overweight and you feel you can't do anything about it,' she said.

Jenny, a qualified barrister who works at home for a legal firm dealing in compensation claims, said: 'I had always been big since high school and my mother was big. I had just put it down to having big bones and it running in the family.

'That is a load of rubbish of course, but it took me more than 20 years to realise that.'

Studying the law as a mature student while working full-time in insurance gave her little time to think about her diet.

'There were too many glasses of wine in the middle of the night and pizzas slammed in the oven when I was writing essays. I scarcely had time to sleep for six years,' she admitted.

Nowadays, her life was complicated by helping her husband Martin run their merchandising business Calder Designs from home.

Jenny, now a size 10, said the beauty of the Slimming World plans was that she could still eat anything she wanted - but the big difference was that she was now in control.

'I still have wine and chocolate bars, but now it is just one and may be just one night a week,' she said.

'My body mass index used to be 38 and now it is 23, right in the middle of the range where it should be. My doctor is really happy.'

She said healthy eating had rubbed off on her husband and 13-year-old daughter Megan who ate exactly the same as she did.

'My daughter now says, 'mum, I am so proud of you' and that means so much to me,' she said.

For details of her classes, call Jenny on 01692-671704.